Comments (5 of 22)

Having one letter removed from another entity in the same market is not an uncommon phenomenon.

When the VMS team moved from DEC to Microsoft in the 90s, the first OS to be released by the new team was Windows NT, or WNT.

@PhilKramer
I worked for Sperry Univac in the 70s and 80s and technically the 1100 mainframes were superior to the 360 on performance and price, but sadly the Sperry Univac sales teams were somewhat motley, compared to the well trained IBM sales teams.

And as the old adage went, no-one ever got fired for buying Big Blue.

5:47 pm May 2, 2014

Steve Beaver wrote:

The Mainframe and its capabilities continue to evolve. It is STILL the most secure platform available.

1:26 pm April 23, 2014

Phil Kramer wrote:

Heywood - it's unusual to see a fictitious character posting to the WSJ.

I'll concede the point about HAL. I still, however, maintain that while IBM's engineering was good, even great, for the times, their sales management ethics could have used a lot of improvement.

5:15 pm April 22, 2014

Shubhamn wrote:

This post has been down from past 36 hours, in case you are not aware.

9:03 pm April 21, 2014

Heywood Floyd wrote:

Although it is often conjectured that the name HAL was based on a one-letter shift from the name IBM, this has been denied by both Clarke and 2001 director Stanley Kubrick. In 2010: Odyssey Two, Clarke speaks through the character of Dr. Chandra (he originally spoke through Dr. Floyd until Chandra was awoken), who characterized this idea as: "[u]tter nonsense! [...] I thought that by now every intelligent person knew that H-A-L is derived from Heuristic ALgorithmic".

Clarke more directly addressed this issue in his book The Lost Worlds of 2001:

As is clearly stated in the novel (Chapter 16), HAL stands for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. However, about once a week some character spots the fact that HAL is one letter ahead of IBM, and promptly assumes that Stanley and I were taking a crack at the estimable institution ... As it happened, IBM had given us a good deal of help, so we were quite embarrassed by this, and would have changed the name had we spotted the coincidence.

Also, IBM is explicitly mentioned in the film 2001, as are many other real companies. IBM is given fictional credit as being the manufacturer of the Pan Am Clipper's computer, and the IBM logo can be seen in the center of the cockpit's instrument panel. In addition, the IBM logo is shown on the lower arm keypad on Poole's space suit in the scene where he space walks to replace the antenna unit, and may possibly be shown reflected on Bowman's face when he is inside the pod on his way to retrieve the body of Poole (there is speculation as to whether or not the reflection is that of the letters "IBM" or the letters "MGM", the film studio).

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